Copyright 1992 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. Developmental Psychology 1992, \fol. 28, No. 5,759-775

The Origins of Attachment Theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth

Inge Bretherton Department of Child and Family Studies University of Wisconsin—Madison

Attachment theory is based on the joint work of John Bowlby (1907-1991) and Mary Salter Ains- worth (1913- ). Its developmental history begins in the 1930s, with Bowlby's growing interest in the link between maternal loss or deprivation and later personality development and with Ainsworth's interest in security theory. Although Bowlby's and Ainsworth's collaboration began in 1950, it entered its most creative phase much later, after Bowlby had formulated an initial blueprint of attachment theory, drawing on ethology, control systems theory, and psychoanalytic thinking, and after Ainsworth had visited Uganda, where she conducted the first empirical study of infant- mother attachment patterns. This article summarizes Bowlby's and Ainsworth's separate and joint contributions to attachment theory but also touches on other theorists and researchers whose work influenced them or was influenced by them. The article then highlights some of the major new fronts along which attachment theory is currently advancing. The article ends with some specula- tions on the future potential of the theory.

Attachment theory is the joint work of John Bowlby and So long as we trace the development from its final outcome back- Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991). Drawing on con- wards, the chain of events appears continuous, and we feel we have gained an insight which is completely satisfactory or even exhaus- cepts from ethology, cybernetics, information processing, devel- tive. But if we proceed in the reverse way, if we start from the opmental psychology, and psychoanalysis, John Bowlby formu- premises inferred from the analysis and try to follow these up to lated the basic tenets of the theory. He thereby revolutionized the final results, then we no longer get the impression of an inevita- our thinking about a child's tie to the mother and its disruption ble sequence of events which could not have otherwise been deter- through separation, deprivation, and bereavement. Mary Ains- mined, (p. 167) worth's innovative methodology not only made it possible to In elucidating how each idea and methodological advance test some of Bowlby's ideas empirically but also helped expand became a stepping stone for the next, my retrospective account the theory itself and is responsible for some of the new direc- of the origins of attachment theory makes the process of theory tions it is now taking. Ainsworth contributed the concept of the building seem planful and orderly. No doubt this was the case to attachment figure as a secure base from which an infant can some extent, but it may often not have seemed so to the protago- explore the world. In addition, she formulated the concept of maternal sensitivity to infant signals and its role in the develop- nists at the time. ment of infant-mother attachment patterns. The ideas now guiding attachment theory have a long devel- Origins opmental history. Although Bowlby and Ainsworth worked in- dependently of each other during their early careers, both were John Bowlby influenced by Freud and other psychoanalytic thinkers—di- rectly in Bowlby's case, indirectly in Ainsworth's. In this article, After graduating from the University of Cambridge in 1928, I document the origins of ideas that later became central to where he received rigorous scientific training and some instruc- attachment theory. I then discuss the subsequent period of tion in what is now called developmental psychology, Bowlby theory building and consolidation. Finally, I review some of the performed volunteer work at a school for maladjusted children new directions in which the theory is currently developing and while reconsidering his career goals. His experiences with two speculate on its future potential. In taking this retrospective children at the school set his professional life on course. One developmental approach to the origins of attachment theory, I was a very isolated, remote, affectionless teenager who had am reminded of Freud's (1920/1955) remark: been expelled from his previous school for theft and had had no stable mother figure. The second child was an anxious boy of 7 or 8 who trailed Bowlby around and who was known as his shadow (Ainsworth, 1974). Persuaded by this experience of the I would like to thank Mary Ainsworth and Ursula Bowlby for helpful effects of early family relationships on personality develop- input to a draft of this article. I am also grateful for insightful com- ments by three very knowledgeable anonymous reviewers. ment, Bowlby decided to embark on a career as a child psychia- Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Inge trist (Senn, 1977b). Bretherton, Department of Child and Family Studies, University of Concurrently with his studies in medicine and psychiatry, Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Bowlby undertook training at the British Psychoanalytic Insti- 759 760 INGE BRETHERTON

tute. During this period Melanie Klein was a major influence At the end of World War II, Bowlby was invited to become there (the institute had three groups: Group A sided with Freud, head of the Children's Department at the Tavistock Clinic. In Group B sided with Klein, and the Middle Group sided with line with his earlier ideas on the importance of family relation- neither). Bowlby was exposed to Kleinian (Klein, 1932) ideas ships in child therapy, he promptly renamed it the Department through his training analyst, Joan Riviere, a close associate of for Children and Parents. Indeed, in what is credited as the first Klein, and eventually through supervision by Melanie Klein published paper in family therapy, Bowlby (1949) describes herself. Although he acknowledges Riviere and Klein for how he was often able to achieve clinical breakthroughs by grounding him in the object-relations approach to psychoanaly- interviewing parents about their childhood experiences in the sis, with its emphasis on early relationships and the pathogenic presence of their troubled children. potential of loss (Bowlby, 1969, p. xvii), he had grave reserva- To Bowlby's chagrin, however, much of the clinical work in tions about aspects of the Kleinian approach to child psycho- the department was done by people with a Kleinian orientation analysis. Klein held that children's emotional problems are al- who, he says, regarded his emphasis on actual family interaction most entirely due to fantasies generated from internal conflict patterns as not particularly relevant. He therefore decided to between aggressive and libidinal drives rather than to events in found his own research unit whose efforts were focused on the external world. She hence forbade Bowlby to talk to the mother-child separation. Because separation is a clearcut and mother of a 3-year-old whom he analyzed under her supervi- undeniable event, its effects on the child and the parent-child sion (Bowlby, 1987). This was anathema to Bowlby who, in the relationship were easier to document than more subtle influ- course of his postgraduate training with two psychoanalytically ences of parental and familial interaction. trained social workers at the London Child Guidance Clinic, had come to believe that actual family experiences were a much more important, if not the basic cause of emotional distur- Mary Ainsworth bance. Mary Ainsworth (nee Salter), 6 years younger than Bowlby, Bowlby's plan to counter Klein's ideas through research is finished graduate study at the University of Toronto just before manifest in an early theoretical paper (1940) in which he pro- World War II. Courses with William Blatz had introduced her posed that, like nurserymen, psychoanalysts should study the to security theory (Blatz, 1940), which both reformulated and nature of the organism, the properties of the soil, and their challenged Freudian ideas, though Blatz chose not to recognize interaction (p. 23). He goes on to suggest that, for mothers with his debt to Freud because of the anti-Freudian climate that parenting difficulties, pervaded the University of Toronto at that time (Ainsworth, a weekly interview in which their problems are approached analyt- 1983; Blatz 1966). ically and traced back to childhood has sometimes been remark- One of the major tenets of security theory is that infants and ably effective. Having once been helped to recognize and recap- ture the feelings which she herself had as a child and to find that young children need to develop a secure dependence on parents they are accepted tolerantly and understandingly, a mother will before launching out into unfamiliar situations. In her disserta- become increasingly sympathetic and tolerant toward the same tion entitled "An Evaluation of Adjustment Based on the Con- things in her child. (Bowlby, 1940, p. 23) cept of Security," Mary Salter (1940) states it this way: These quotations reveal Bowlby's early theoretical and clinical Familial security in the early stages is of a dependent type and interest in the intergenerational transmission of attachment re- forms a basis from which the individual can work out gradually, lations and in the possibility of helping children by helping forming new skills and interests in other fields. Where familial security is lacking, the individual is handicapped by the lack of parents. Psychoanalytic object-relations theories later proposed what might be called a secure base [italics added] from which to by Fairbairn (1952) and Winnicott (1965) were congenial to work. (p. 45) Bowlby, but his thinking had developed independently of them. Bowlby's first empirical study, based on case notes from the Interestingly, Mary Salter's dissertation research included an London Child Guidance Clinic, dates from this period. Like analysis of students' autobiographical narratives in support of the boy at the school for maladjusted children, many of the the validity of her paper-and-pencil self-report scales of famil- clinic patients were affectionless and prone to stealing. ial and extrafamilial security, foreshadowing her later penchant Through detailed examination of 44 cases, Bowlby was able to for narrative methods of data collection. Indeed, few re- link their symptoms to histories of maternal deprivation and searchers realize the enormous experience in instrument devel- separation. opment and diagnostics she brought to attachment research. Although World War II led to an interruption in Bowlby's Like Bowlby's, Mary Salter's professional career was shaped budding career as a practicing child psychiatrist, it laid further by her duties as a military officer during World War II (in the groundwork for his career as a researcher. His assignment was Canadian Women's Army Corps). After the war, as a faculty to collaborate on officer selection procedures with a group of member at the University of Toronto, she set out to deepen her distinguished colleagues from the Tavistock Clinic in London, clinical skills in response to the request to teach courses in an experience that gave Bowlby a level of methodological and personality assessment. To prepare herself for this task, she statistical expertise then unusual for a psychiatrist and psy- signed up for workshops by Bruno Klopfer, a noted expert in choanalyst. This training is obvious in the revision of his paper, the interpretation of the Rorschach test. This experience led to "Forty-Four Juvenile Thieves: Their Characters and Home a coauthored book on the Rorschach technique (Klopfer, Ains- Lives" (Bowlb^ 1944), which includes statistical tests as well as worth, Klopfer, & Holt, 1954), which is still in print. detailed case histories. In 1950 Mary Salter married Leonard Ainsworth and accom- APA CENTENNIAL: ORIGINS OF ATTACHMENT THEORY 761 panied him to London, where he completed his doctoral stud- postwar Europe. Preparation of the WHO report gave Bowlby ies. Someone there drew her attention to a job advertisement in an opportunity to pick the brains of many practitioners and the London Times that happened to involve research, under the researchers across Europe and the United States who were con- direction of John Bowlby, into the effect on personality develop- cerned with the effects of maternal separation and deprivation ment of separation from the mother in early childhood. As on young children, including Spitz (1946) and Goldfarb (1943, Mary Ainsworth acknowledges, joining Bowlby's research unit 1945). The report was written in 6 months and translated into reset the whole direction of her professional career, though nei- 14 languages, with sales of 400,000 copies in the English paper- ther Bowlby nor Ainsworth realized this at the time. back edition; it was published in 1951 as Maternal Care and Mental Health by the WHO. A second edition, entitled Child Care and the Growth of Love, with review chapters by Mary The Emergence of Attachment Theory Ainsworth, was published by Penguin Books in 1965. In 1948,2 years before Ainsworth's arrival, Bowlby had hired It is interesting to examine the 1951 report from today's per- James Robertson to help him observe hospitalized and institu- spective. At that time Bowlby still used the terminology of tra- tionalized children who were separated from their parents. Rob- ditional psychoanalysis (love object, libidinal ties, ego, and su- ertson had had impeccable training in naturalistic observation, perego), but his ideas were little short of heretical. Perhaps fol- obtained as a conscientious objector during World War II, when lowing Spitz, he used embryology as a metaphor to portray the he was employed as a boilerman in Anna Freud's Hampstead maternal role in child development: residential nursery for homeless children. Anna Freud required that all members of the staff, no matter what their training or If growth is to proceed smoothly, the tissues must be exposed to background, write notes on cards about the children's behavior the influence of the appropriate organizer at certain critical pe- riods. In the same way, if mental development is to proceed (Senn, 1977a), which were then used as a basis for weekly group smoothly, it would appear to be necessary for the undifferentiated discussions. The thorough training in child observation that psyche to be exposed during certain critical periods to the influ- Robertson thus obtained at the Hampstead residential nursery ence of the psychic organizer—the mother. (Bowlby, 1951, p. 53) are Anna Freud's lasting personal contribution to the develop- ment of attachment theory. Then, seemingly doing away with the idea that the superego has After 2 years of collecting data on hospitalized children for its origin in the resolution of the Oedipus complex, Bowlby Bowlby's research projects, Robertson protested that he could claims that during the early years, while the child acquires the not continue as an uninvolved research worker, but felt com- capacity for self-regulation, the mother is a child's ego and su- pelled to do something for the children he had been observing. perego: On a shoestring budget, with minimal training, a hand-held cinecamera, and no artificial lighting, he made the deeply mov- It is not surprising that during infancy and early childhood these ing film, A Two-Year-Old Goes to Hospital (Robertson, 1953a, functions are either not operating at all or are doing so most im- 1953b; Robertson & Bowlby, 1952). Foreseeing the potential perfectly. During this phase of life, the child is therefore depen- dent on his mother performing them for him. She orients him in impact of this film, Bowlby insisted that it be carefully planned space and time, provides his environment, permits the satisfac- to ensure that no one would later be able to accuse Robertson of tion of some impulses, restricts others. She is his ego and his biased recording. The target child was randomly selected, and super-ego. Gradually he learns these arts himself, and as he does, the hospital clock on the wall served as proof that time sam- the skilled parent transfers the roles to him. This is a slow, subtle and continuous process, beginning when he firstlearn s to walk pling took place at regular periods of the day. Together with and feed himself, and not ending completely until maturity is Spitz's (1947) film, Grief: A Peril in Infancy, Robertson's first reached.. . . Ego and super-ego development are thus inextric- film helped improve the fate of hospitalized children all over ably bound up with the child's primary human relationships. the Western world, even though it was initially highly contro- (Bowlby, 1951, p. 53) versial among the medical establishment. When Mary Ainsworth arrived at Bowlby's research unit late This sounds more Vygotskian than Freudian. Moreover, de- in 1950, others working there (besides James Robertson) were spite his disagreements with Kleinian therapy, I detect rem- Mary Boston and Dina Rosenbluth. Rudolph Schaffer, whose nants of Kleinian ideas in Bowlby's discussions of children's subsequent attachment research is well known (SchafFer & violent fantasies on returning to parents after a prolonged sepa- Emerson, 1964), joined the group somewhat later, as did Chris- ration and "the intense depression that humans experience as a toph Heinicke (1956; Heinicke & Westheimer, 1966), who un- result of hating the person they most dearly love and need" dertook additional separation and reunion studies, and Tony (Bowlby, 1951, p. 57). Ambrose (1961), who was interested in early social behavior. Bowlby's major conclusion, grounded in the available empiri- Mary Ainsworth, who was charged with analyzing James Rob- cal evidence, was that to grow up mentally healthy "the infant ertson's data, was tremendously impressed with his records of and young child should experience a warm, intimate, and con- children's behavior and decided that she would emulate his tinuous relationship with his mother (or permanent mother methods of naturalistic observation were she ever to undertake substitute) in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment" a study of her own (Ainsworth, 1983). (Bowlby, 1951, p. 13). Later summaries often overlook the refer- At this time, Bowlby's earlier writings about the familial expe- ence to the substitute mother and to the partners' mutual enjoy- riences of affectionless children had led Ronald Hargreaves of ment. They also neglect Bowlby's emphasis on the role of social the World Health Organization (WHO) to commission him to networks and on economic as well as health factors in the devel- write a report on the mental health of homeless children in opment of well-functioning mother-child relationships. His 762 INGE BRETHERTON call to society to provide support for parents is still not heeded worth, Boston, & Rosenbluth, 1956) is nevertheless important, today: because it prefigures later work on patterns of attachment by Ainsworth. Her contribution to the paper was a system for Just as children are absolutely dependent on their parents for suste- classifying three basic relationship patterns in school-age chil- nance, so in all but the most primitive communities, are parents, especially their mothers, dependent on a greater society for eco- dren who had been reunited with parents after prolonged sana- nomic provision. If a community values its children it must cher- torium stays: those with strong positive feelings toward their ish their parents. (Bowlby, 1951, p. 84) mothers; those with markedly ambivalent relationships; and a third group with nonexpressive, indifferent, or hostile relation- True to the era in which the WHO report was written, Bowlby ships with mother. emphasized the female parent. In infancy, he comments, fathers have their uses, but normally play second fiddle to mother. Their prime role is to provide emotional support to their wives' The Formulation of Attachment Theory mothering. and the First Attachment Study The proposition that, to thrive emotionally, children need a Theoretical Formulations close and continuous caregiving relationship called for a theo- retical explanation. Bowlby was not satisfied with the then Bowlby's first formal statement of attachment theory, build- current psychoanalytic view that love of mother derives from ing on concepts from ethology and developmental psychology, sensuous oral gratification, nor did he agree with social learn- was presented to the British Psychoanalytic Society in London ing theory's claim that dependency is based on secondary rein- in three now classic papers: "The Nature of the Child's Tie to forcement (a concept that was itself derived from psychoana- His Mother" (1958), "Separation Anxiety" (1959), and "Grief lytic ideas). Like Spitz (1946) and Erikson (1950), Bowlby had and Mourning in Infancy and Early Childhood" (1960). By latched on to the concept of critical periods in embryological 1962 Bowlby had completed two further papers (never pub- development and was casting about for similar phenomena at lished; 1962a and b) on defensive processes related to mourn- the behavioral level when, through a friend, he happened upon ing. These five papers represent the first basic blueprint of at- an English translation of Konrad Lorenz's (1935) paper on im- tachment theory. printing. The Nature of the Child's Tie to His Mother. This paper re- From then on Bowlby began to mine ethology for useful new views and then rejects those contemporary psychoanalytic ex- concepts. Lorenz's (1935) account of imprinting in geese and planations for the child's libidinal tie to the mother in which other precocial birds especially intrigued him, because it sug- need satisfaction is seen as primary and attachment as second- gested that social bond formation need not be tied to feeding. ary or derived. Borrowing from Freud's (1905/1953) notion that In addition, he favored ethological methods of observing ani- mature human sexuality is built up of component instincts, mals in their natural environment, because this approach was Bowlby proposed that 12-month-olds' unmistakable attach- so compatible with the methods Robertson had already devel- ment behavior is made up of a number of component instinc- oped at the Tavistock research unit. tual responses that have the function of binding the infant to One notable talent that stood Bowlby in great stead through- the mother and the mother to the infant. These component out his professional life was his ability to draw to himself out- responses (among them sucking, clinging, and following, as standing individuals who were willing and able to help him well as the signaling behaviors of smiling and crying) mature acquire expertise in new fields of inquiry that he needed to relatively independently during the first year of life and become master in the service of theory building. To learn more about increasingly integrated and focused on a mother figure during ethology, Bowlby contacted Robert Hinde, under whose "gener- the second 6 months. Bowlby saw clinging and following as ous and stern guidance" (see Bowlby, 1980b, p. 650) he mastered possibly more important for attachment than sucking and ethological principles to help him find new ways of thinking crying. about infant-mother attachment. Conversely, Hinde's fascinat- To buttress his arguments, Bowlby reviewed data from exist- ing studies of individual differences in separation and reunion ing empirical studies of infants' cognitive and social develop- behaviors of group-living rhesus mother-infant dyads (Hinde & ment, including those of Piaget (1951,1954), with whose ideas Spencer-Booth, 1967) were inspired by the contact with Bowlby he had become acquainted during a series of meetings by the and his co-workers (Hinde, 1991). "Psychobiology of the Child" study group, organized by the Bowlby's first ethological paper appeared in 1953. Somewhat same Ronald Hargreaves at the World Health Organization who surprisingly, however, various empirical papers on the effects of had commissioned Bowlby's 1951 report. These informative separation, published with his own research team at the very meetings, also attended by Erik Erikson, Julian Huxley, Baerbel same period, show little trace of Bowlby's new thinking, be- Inhelder, Konrad Lorenz, Margaret Mead, and Ludwig von cause his colleagues were unconvinced that ethology was rele- Bertalanfly, took place between 1953 and 1956 (proceedings vant to the mother-child relationship (Bowlby, personal com- were published by Tavistock Publications). For additional evi- munication, October 1986). Even Mary Ainsworth, though dence, Bowlby drew on many years of experience as weekly much enamored of ethology, was somewhat wary of the direc- facilitator of a support group for young mothers in London. tion Bowlby's theorizing had begun to take. It was obvious to After his careful discussion of infant development, Bowlby her, she said, that a baby loves his mother because she satisfies introduced ethological concepts, such as sign stimuli or social his needs (Ainsworth, personal communication, January 1992). releasers that "cause" specific responses to be activated and A collaborative paper dating from this period (Bowlby, Ains- shut off or terminated (see Tinbergen, 1951). These stimuli APA CENTENNIAL: ORIGINS OF ATTACHMENT THEORY 763 could be external or intrapsychic, an important point in view of Anna Freud's contention that bereaved infants cannot mourn the fact that some psychoanalysts accused Bowlby of behavior- because of insufficient ego development and therefore experi- ism because he supposedly ignored mental phenomena. ence nothing more than brief bouts of separation anxiety if an Bowlby also took great pains to draw a clear distinction be- adequate substitute caregiver is available. In contrast, Bowlby tween the old social learning theory concept of dependency (citing Marris, 1958) claimed that grief and mourning processes and the new concept of attachment, noting that attachment is in children and adults appear whenever attachment behaviors not indicative of regression, but rather performs a natural, are activated but the attachment figurecontinue s to be unavail- healthy function even in adult life. able. He also suggested that an inability to form deep relation- Bowlby's new instinct theory raised quite a storm at the Brit- ships with others may result when the succession of substitutes ish Psychoanalytic Society. Even Bowlby's own analyst, Joan is too frequent. Riviere, protested. Anna Freud, who missed the meeting but As with the firstpaper , this paper also drew strong objections read the paper, politely wrote: "Dr. Bowlby is too valuable a from many members of the British Psychoanalytic Society. One person to get lost to psychoanalysis" (Grosskurth, 1987). analyst is said to have exclaimed: "Bowlby? Give me Barrabas" Separation Anxiety. The second seminal paper (Bowlby, (Grosskurth, 1987). Controversy also accompanied the pub- 1959) builds on observations by Robertson (1953b) and Hein- lished version of this paper in the Psychoanalytic Study of the icke (1956; later elaborated as Heinicke & Westheimer, 1966), as Child. Unbeknownst to Bowlby, rejoinders had been invited well as on Harlow and Zimmermann's (1958) groundbreaking from Anna Freud (1960), Max Schur (1960), and Rene Spitz work on the effects of maternal deprivation in rhesus monkeys. (1960), all of whom protested various aspects of Bowlby's revi- Traditional theory, Bowlby claims, can explain neither the in- sion of Freudian theory. Spitz (1960) ended his rejoinder by tense attachment of infants and young children to a mother saying: figure nor their dramatic responses to separation. When submitting new theories we should not violate the principle Robertson (Robertson & Bowlby, 1952) had identified three of parsimony in science by offering hypotheses which in contrast phases of separation response: protest (related to separation to existing theory becloud the observational facts, are oversimpli- anxiety), despair (related to grief and mourning), and denial or fied, and make no contribution to the better understanding of detachment (related to defence mechanisms, especially repres- observed phenomena, (p. 93) sion). Again drawing on ethological concepts regarding the con- trol of behavior, Bowlby maintained that infants and children Despite this concerted attack, Bowlby remained a member of experience separation anxiety when a situation activates both the British Psychoanalytic Society for the rest of his life, al- escape and attachment behavior but an attachment figure is not though he never again used it as a forum for discussing his available. ideas. At a meeting of the society in memory of John Bowlby, The following quote explains, in part, why some psychoana- Eric Rayner (1991) expressed his regret at this turn of events: lytic colleagues called Bowlby a behaviorist: "for to have a deep What seems wrong is when a theorist extols his own view by rub- attachment for a person (or a place or thing) is to have taken bishing others; Bowlby received this treatment.. . .Ourtherapeu- them as the terminating object of our instinctual responses" tic frame of mind is altered by theory. John Bowlby was a great (Bowlby, 1959, p. 13). The oddity of this statement derives from alterer of frames of mind. mixing, in the same sentence, experiential language (to have a deep attachment) with explanatory language representing an Bowlby's controversial paper on mourning attracted the at- external observer's point of view (the attachment figure as the tention of Colin Parkes, now well known for his research on terminating object). adult bereavement. Parkes saw the relevance of Bowlby's and In this paper Bowlby also took issue with Freud's claim that Robertson's work on mourning in infancy and childhood for maternal overgratification is a danger in infancy. Freud failed gaining insight into the process of adult grief. On joining to realize, says Bowlby, that maternal pseudoaffection and over- Bowlby's research unit at the Tavistock Institute in 1962, Parkes protection may derive from a mother's overcompensation for set out to study a nonclinic group of widows in their homes to unconscious hostility. In Bowlby's view, excessive separation chart the course of normal adult grief, about which little was anxiety is due to adverse family experiences—such as repeated known at the time. The findings led to a joint paper with threats of abandonment or rejection by parents—or to a par- Bowlby (Bowlby & Parkes, 1970) in which the phases of separa- ent's or sibling's illness or death for which the child feels respon- tion response delineated by Robertson for young children were sible. elaborated into four phases of grief during adult life: (a) numb- Bowlby also pointed out that, in some cases, separation anxi- ness, (b) yearning and protest, (c) disorganization and despair, ety can be excessively low or be altogether absent, giving an and (d) reorganization (see also Parkes, 1972). erroneous impression of maturity. He attributes pseudoinde- Before the publication of the 1970 paper, Parkes had visited pendence under these conditions to defensive processes. A Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in Chicago, who was then gathering well-loved child, he claims, is quite likely to protest separation data for her influential book On Death and Dying (1970). The from parents but will later develop more self-reliance. These phases of dying described in her book (denial, anger, bargain- ideas later reemerged in Ainsworth's classifications of ambiva- ing, depression, and acceptance) owe much to Bowlby's and lent, avoidant, and secure patterns of infant-mother attach- Robertson's thinking. Bowlby also introduced Parkes to the ment (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). founder of the modern hospice movement, Cicely Saunders. Grief and Mourning in Infancy and Early Childhood. In the Saunders and Parkes used attachment theory and research in third, most controversial paper, Bowlby (1960) questioned developing programs for the emotional care of the dying and 764 INGE BRETHERTON

bereaved. What they found particularly helpful in countering 1969). In this sharing of ideas, Ainsworth's theoretical contribu- negative attitudes to the dying and bereaved was the concept of tion to Bowlby's presentation of the ontogeny of human attach- grief as a process toward attaining a new identity rather than as ment cannot be overestimated. a state (Parkes, personal communication, November 1989). Findings From Ainsworth's Ganda Project The First Empirical Study of Attachment: Infancy in Uganda The Ganda data (Ainsworth, 1963,1967) were a rich source for the study of individual differences in the quality of mother- Let us now return to Mary Ainsworth's work. In late 1953, infant interaction, the topic that Bowlby had earlier left aside as she had left the Tavistock Clinic, obviously quite familiar with too difficult to study. Of special note, in light of Ainsworth's Bowlby's thinking about ethology but not convinced of its value future work, was an evaluation of maternal sensitivity to infant for understanding infant-mother attachment. The Ainsworths signals, derived from interview data. Mothers who were excel- were headed for Uganda, where Leonard Ainsworth had ob- lent informants and who provided much spontaneous detail tained a position at the East African Institute of Social Re- were rated as highly sensitive, in contrast to other mothers who search at Kampala. With help from the same institute, Mary seemed imperceptive of the nuances of infant behavior. Three Ainsworth was able to scrape together funds for an observa- infant attachment patterns were observed: Securely attached tional study, but not before writing Bowlby a letter in which she infants cried little and seemed content to explore in the pres- called for empirical validation of his ethological notions (Ains- ence of mother; insecurely attached infants cried frequently, worth, January 1992, personal communication). even when held by their mothers, and explored little; and not- Inspired by her analyses of Robertson's data, Ainsworth had yet attached infants manifested no differential behavior to the initially planned an investigation of toddlers' separation re- mother. sponses during weaning, but it soon became obvious that the It turned out that secure attachment was significantly corre- old tradition of sending the child away "to forget the breast" lated with maternal sensitivity. Babies of sensitive mothers had broken down. She therefore decided to switch gears and tended to be securely attached, whereas babies of less sensitive observe the development of infant-mother attachment. mothers were more likely to be classified as insecure. Mothers' As soon as she began her data collection, Ainsworth was enjoyment of breast-feeding also correlated with infant security. struck by the pertinence of Bowlby's ideas. Hence, the first These findings foreshadow some of Ainsworth's later work, al- study of infant-mother attachment from an ethological per- though the measures are not yet as sophisticated as those devel- spective was undertaken several years before the publication of oped for subsequent studies. the three seminal papers in which Bowlby (1958,1959,1960) Ainsworth presented her initial findings from the Ganda laid out attachment theory. project at meetings of the Tavistock Study Group organized by Ainsworth recruited 26 families with unweaned babies (ages Bowlby during the 1960s (Ainsworth, 1963). Participants in- 1 -24 months) whom she observed every 2 weeks for 2 hours per vited to these influential gatherings included many now-emi- visit over a period of up to 9 months. Visits (with an interpreter) nent infant researchers of diverse theoretical backgrounds (in took place in the family living-room, where Ganda women gen- addition to Mary Ainsworth, there were Genevieve Appell, erally entertain in the afternoon. Ainsworth was particularly Miriam David, Jacob Gewirtz, Hanus Papousek, Heinz interested in determining the onset of proximity-promoting sig- Prechtl, Harriet Rheingold, Henry Ricciuti, Louis Sander, and nals and behaviors, noting carefully when these signals and be- Peter Wolff), as well as renowned animal researchers such as haviors became preferentially directed toward the mother. Harry Harlow, Robert Hinde, Charles Kaufmann, Jay Rosen- On leaving Uganda in 1955, the Ainsworths moved to Balti- blatt, and Thelma Rowell. Their lively discussions and ensuing more, where Mary Ainsworth began work as a diagnostician studies contributed much to the developing field of infant so- and part-time clinician at the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospi- cial development in general. Importantly for Bowlby, they also tal, further consolidating her already considerable assessment enriched his ongoing elaboration of attachment theory. Bowlby skills. At the same time, she taught clinical and developmental had always believed that he had much to gain from bringing courses at the Johns Hopkins University, where she was initially together researchers with different theoretical backgrounds hired as a lecturer. Because of her involvement in diagnostic (e.g., learning theory, psychoanalysis, and ethology), whether or work and teaching, the data from the Ganda project lay fallow not they agreed with his theoretical position. Proceedings of for several years. these fruitful meetings were published in four volumes entitled Determinants of Infant Behaviour (1961,1963,1965, and 1969, edited by Brian Foss). Refining Attachment Theory and Research: Bowlby and Ainsworth The Baltimore Project Before the publication of "The Nature of the Child's Tie to His Mother" in 1958, Mary Ainsworth received a preprint of In 1963, while still pondering the data from the Ganda study, the paper from John Bowlby. This event led Bowlby and Ains- Mary Ainsworth embarked on a second observational project worth to renew their close intellectual collaboration. Ains- whose thoroughness no researcher has since equalled. Again, worth's subsequent analysis of data from her Ganda project she opted for naturalistic observations, but with interviews (Ainsworth 1963, 1967) influenced and was influenced by playing a somewhat lesser role. The 26 participating Baltimore Bowlby's reformulation of attachment theory (published in families were recruited prenatally, with 18 home visits begin- APA CENTENNIAL: ORIGINS OF ATTACHMENT THEORY 765 ning in the first month and ending at 54 weeks. Each visit lasted mother had provided much tender holding during the first 4 hours to make sure that mothers would feel comfortable quarter sought contact less often during the fourth quarter, but enough to follow their normal routine, resulting in approxi- when contact occurred it was rated as more satisfying and affec- mately 72 hours of data collection per family. tionate (Ainsworth, Bell, Blehar, & Main, 1971). Ainsworth Raw data took the form of narrative reports, jotted down in (Ainsworth et al., 1978) explains these findings by recourse to personal shorthand, marked in 5-minute intervals, and later infants' expectations, based on prior satisfying or rejecting expe- dictated into a tape recorder for transcription. Typed narratives riences with mother. from all visits for each quarter of the first year of life were All first-quarter interactive patterns were also related to in- grouped together for purposes of analysis. fant behavior in a laboratory procedure known as the Strange A unique (at the time) aspect of Ainsworttis methodology Situation (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969). This initially very contro- was the emphasis on meaningful behavioral patterns in con- versial laboratory procedure for 1-year-olds was originally de- text, rather than on frequency counts of specific behaviors. This signed to examine the balance of attachment and exploratory approach had roots in her dissertation work, in which she clas- behaviors under conditions of low and high stress, a topic in sified patterns of familial and extrafamilial dependent and inde- which Harlow (1961) had aroused Ainsworth's interest during pendent security, in her expertise with the Rorschach test, and meetings of the Tavistock group, but which also reminded her in her work at the Tavistock Institute with Bowlby and Rob- of an earlier study by Arsenian (1943) on young children in an ertson. insecure situation and of her dissertation work on security Close examination of the narratives revealed the emergence theory. of characteristic mother-infant interaction patterns during the The Strange Situation is a 20-minute miniature drama with first 3 months (see Ainsworth et al., 1978; see also Ainsworth, eight episodes. Mother and infant are introduced to a labora- 1982,1983). Separate analyses were conducted on feeding situa- tory play room where they are later joined by an unfamiliar tions (Ainsworth & Bell, 1969), mother-infant face-to-face in- woman. While the stranger plays with the baby, the mother teraction (Blehar, Liebermann, & Ainsworth, 1977), crying leaves briefly and then returns. A second separation ensues (Bell & Ainsworth, 1972), infant greeting and following (Stay- during which the baby is completely alone. Finally, the stranger ton & Ainsworth, 1973), the attachment exploration balance and then the mother return. (Ainsworth, Bell, & Stayton, 1971), obedience (Stayton, Hogan, As expected, Ainsworth found that infants explored the & Ainsworth, 1973), close bodily contact (Ainsworth, Bell, Ble- playroom and toys more vigorously in the presence of their har, & Main, 1971), approach behavior (Tracy, Lamb, & Ains- mothers than after a stranger entered or while the mother was worth, 1976), and affectionate contact (Tracy & Ainsworth, absent (Ainsworth & Bell, 1970). Although these results were 1981). theoretically interesting, Ainsworth became much more in- Striking individual differences were observed in how sensi- trigued with unexpected patterns of infant reunion behaviors, tively, appropriately, and promptly mothers responded to their which reminded her of responses Robertson had documented infants' signals. For some mother-infant pairs, feeding was an in children exposed to prolonged separations, and about which occasion for smooth cooperation. Other mothers had difficul- Bowlby (1959) had theorized in his paper on separation. ties in adjusting their pacing and behavior to the baby's cues. In A few of the 1-year-olds from the Baltimore study were sur- response their babies tended to struggle, choke, and spit up, prisingly angry when the mother returned after a 3-minute (or hardly the sensuous oral experience Freud had had in mind. shorter) separation. They cried and wanted contact but would Similar distinctive patterns were observed in face-to-face inter- not simply cuddle or "sink in" when picked up by the returning actions between mother and infant during the period from 6 to mother. Instead, they showed their ambivalence by kicking or 15 weeks (Blehar, Lieberman, & Ainsworth, 1977). When swiping at her. Another group of children seemed to snub or mothers meshed their own playful behavior with that of their avoid the mother on reunion, even though they had often babies, infants responded with joyful bouncing, smiling, and searched for her while she was gone. Analyses of home data vocalizing. However, when mothers initiated fact-to-face inter- revealed that those infants who had been ambivalent toward or actions silently and with an unsmiling expression, ensuing in- avoidant of the mother on reunion in the Strange Situation had teractions were muted and brief. Findings on close bodily con- a less harmonious relationship with her at home than those (a tact resembled those on feeding and fact-to-face interaction, as majority) who sought proximity, interaction, or contact on re- did those on crying. There were enormous variations in how union (Ainsworth, Bell, & Stayton, 1974). Thus originated the many crying episodes a mother ignored and how long she let well-known Strange Situation classification system (Ainsworth the baby cry. In countering those who argued that maternal et al., 1978) which, to Ainsworth's chagrin, has stolen the lime- responsiveness might lead to "spoiling," Bell and Ainsworth light from her observational findingso f naturalistic mother-in- (1972) conclude that "an infant whose mother's responsiveness fant interaction patterns at home. helps him to achieve his ends develops confidence in his own ability to control what happens to him" (p. 1188). The First Volume in the Attachment Trilogy: Maternal sensitivity in the first quarter was associated with Attachment and Ethology more harmonious mother-infant relationships in the fourth quarter. Babies whose mothers had been highly responsive to While Ainsworth wrote up the findings from her Ganda crying during the early months now tended to cry less, relying study for Infancy in Uganda (1967) and was engaged in collect- for communication on facial expressions, gestures, and vocali- ing data for the Baltimore project, Bowlby worked on the first zations (Bell & Ainsworth, 1972). Similarly, infants whose volume of the attachment trilogy, Attachment (1969). When he 766 INGE BRETHERTON

began this enterprise in 1962, the plan had been for a single can activate them also becomes more restricted. This is the case book. However, as he explains in the preface: "As my study of in imprinting, broadly defined as the restriction of specific in- theory progressed it was gradually borne in upon me that the stinctive behaviors to particular individuals or groups of indi- field I had set out to plough so light-heartedly was no less than viduals during sensitive phases of development as in filial, pa- the one Freud had started tilling sixty years earlier." In short, rental, and sexual imprinting. Bowlby realized that he had to develop a new theory of motiva- Having laid out this general theory of motivation and behav- tion and behavior control, built on up-to-date science rather ior regulation in the firsthal f of the volume, Bowlby goes on, in than the outdated psychic energy model espoused by Freud. the second half, to apply these ideas to the specific domain of In the first half of Attachment, Bowlby lays the groundwork infant-mother attachment. He defines attachment behavior as for such a theory, taking pains to document each important behavior that has proximity to an attachment figure as a predict- statement with available research findings. He begins by noting able outcome and whose evolutionary function is protection of that organisms at different levels of the phylogenetic scale regu- the infant from danger, insisting that attachment has its own late instinctive behavior in distinct ways, ranging from primi- motivation and is in no way derived from systems subserving tive reflexlike "fixed action patterns" to complex plan hierar- mating and feeding. chies with subgoals. In the most complex organisms, instinctive Although human infants initially direct proximity-promot- behaviors may be "goal-corrected" with continual on-course ing signals fairly indiscriminately to all caregivers, these behav- adjustments (such as a bird of prey adjusting its flight to the iors become increasingly focused on those primary figureswh o movements of the prey). The concept of cybernetically con- are responsive to the infant's crying and who engage the infant trolled behavioral systems organized as plan hierarchies in social interaction (Schaffer & Emerson, 1964). Once at- (Miller, Galanter, & Pribram, 1960) thus came to replace tached, locomotor infants are able to use the attachment figure Freud's concept of drive and instinct. Behaviors regulated by as a secure base for exploration of the environment and as a safe such systems need not be rigidly innate, but—depending on the haven to which to return for reassurance (Ainsworth, 1967; organism—can adapt in greater or lesser degrees to changes in Schaffer & Emerson, 1964). How effectively the attachment fig- environmental circumstances, provided these do not deviate ure can serve in these roles depends on the quality of social too much from the organism's environment of evolutionary interaction, especially the attachment figure's sensitivity to the adaptedness. Such flexibleorganism s pay a price, however, be- infant's signals, although child factors also play a role. Building cause adaptable behavioral systems can more easily be sub- on Ainsworth's Ganda study (1967) and preliminary findings verted from their optimal path of development. For humans, from her Baltimore project, Bowlby (1969) comments that Bowlby speculates, the environment of evolutionary adapted- ness probably resembles that of present-day hunter-gatherer when interaction between a couple runs smoothly, each party societies. manifests intense pleasure in the other's company and especially in the other's expression of affection. Conversely, whenever inter- The ultimate functions of behavioral systems controlling at- action results in persistent conflict each party is likely on occa- tachment, parenting, mating, feeding, and exploration are sur- sion to exhibit intense anxiety or unhappiness, especially when vival and procreation. In some cases, the predictable outcome the other is rejecting.. . . Proximity and affectionate interchange are appraised and felt as pleasurable by both, whereas distance of system activation is a time-limited behavior (such as food and expressions of rejection are appraised as disagreeable or pain- intake), in others it is the time-extended maintenance of an ful by both. (p. 242) organism in a particular relation to its environment (e.g., within its own territory or in proximity to particular companions). During the preschool years the attachment behavioral sys- Complex behavioral systems of the kind proposed by Bowlby tem, always complementary to the parental caregiving system, can work with foresight in organisms that have evolved an abil- undergoes further reorganization as the child attains growing ity to construct internal working models of the environment insight into the attachment figure's motives and plans. Bowlby and of their own actions in it (a concept taken over from Craik, refers to this stage as goal-corrected partnership. However, in 1943, through the writings of the biologist J. Z. Young, 1964). emphasizing infant initiative and sensitive maternal respond- The more adequate an organism's internal working model, the ing, Bowlby's (1951) earlier theorizing on the mother as the more accurately the organism can predict the future. However, child's ego and superego was regrettably lost. adds Bowlby, if working models of the environment and self are out-of-date or are only half revised after drastic environmental change, pathological functioning may ensue. He speculates that Consolidation useful model revision, extension, and consistency checking The publication of the first volume of the attachment trilogy may require conscious processing of model content. In hu- in 1969 coincided with the appearance in print of initial find- mans, communicative processes—initially limited to emo- ings from Ainsworth's Baltimore project (reviewed earlier). tional or gestural signaling and later including language—also However, many investigators strongly contested Ainsworth's permit the intersubjective sharing of model content. On an in- claims regarding the meaning of Strange Situation behavior, trapsychic level, the same processes are useful for self-regula- often because they failed to note that Strange Situation classifi- tion and behavioral priority setting. cations had been validated against extensive home observa- In mammals and birds, behavioral systems tend to become tions. Some interpreted avoidant infants' behavior as indepen- organized during specific sensitive developmental periods. As dence. The controversy lesseaed somewhat after the publica- initial reflexlike behavior chains come under more complex, tion of Patterns of Attachment (Ainsworth et al., 1978), which cybernetically controlled organization, the range of stimuli that drew together the results from the Baltimore project and pre- APA CENTENNIAL: ORIGINS OF ATTACHMENT THEORY 767 sented findings from other laboratories on the sequelae of at- (1923/1961,1940/1964) motivational theories, and presents an tachment classifications in toddlerhood and early childhood epigenetic model of personality development inspired by Wad- (e.g., Main, 1973; Matas, Arend, & Sroufe, 1978). dington's (1957) theory of developmental pathways. During this period, many of Ainsworth's graduate students Elaborating on his seminal 1959 paper, Bowlby notes that began to publish their own work. Silvia Bell (1970) examined two distinct sets of stimuli elicit fear in children: the presence of the relationship between object permanence and attachment. unlearned and later of culturally acquired clues to danger and/ Mary Main (1973) studied secure and insecure toddlers' capac- or the absence of an attachment figure. Although escape from ity to become invested in play activities and problem solving. danger and escape to an attachment figure commonly occur Mary Blehar (1974) undertook the first study of attachment together, the two classes of behavior are governed by separate and nonmaternal care, and Alicia Lieberman (1977) investi- control systems (observable when a ferocious dog comes be- gated attachment and peer relationships in preschoolers. Mary tween a mother and her young child). Ainsworth's influence is also evident in the fact that many Although Bowlby regarded the systems controlling escape Johns Hopkins undergraduate students who had helped with and attachment as conceptually distinct, he considers both as the analysis of data from the Baltimore project later produced members of a larger family of stress-reducing and safety-pro- innovative dissertations on attachment-related topics at their moting behavioral systems, whose more general function is that respective graduate institutions, among them Robert Marvin of maintaining an organism within a defined relationship to his (1972,1977), who wrote on the goal-corrected partnership; Mil- or her environment. Rather than striving for stimulus absence ton Kotelchuck (1972), who studied father attachment; Mark as Freud had suggested, Bowlby posits that humans are moti- Cummings (1980), who investigated attachment and day care; vated to maintain a dynamic balance between familiarity-pre- Mark Greenberg (Greenberg & Marvin, 1979), who examined serving, stress-reducing behaviors (attachment to protective in- attachment in deaf children; and Everett Waters (1978), who dividuals and to familiar home sites, retreat from the strange documented the longitudinal stability of attachment patterns and novel) and antithetical exploratory and information-seek- from 12 to 18 months. ing behaviors. Everett Waters's entry into graduate study at the University of After revising Freud's theories of fear and motivation, Minnesota in 1973 had a profound effect on Alan Sroufe, who Bowlby reexamined Freud's concept of the "inner world" in had read Mary Ainsworth's (1968) theoretical article about ob- light of modern cognitive theory. In Separation, he expands ject relations and dependency but had not heard of the Strange ideas proposed in Attachment by suggesting that, within an Situation or the Baltimore project (Sroufe, personal communi- individual's internal working model of the world, working mod- cation, 1988). Sroufe's contact with Waters led to significant els of self and attachment figure are especially salient. These empirical and theoretical collaborations. In 1977, Sroufe and working models, acquired through interpersonal interaction Waters wrote an influential paper that made attachment as an patterns, are complementary. If the attachment figure has ac- organizational construct accessible to a much larger audience. knowledged the infant's needs for comfort and protection while At the same time, Sroufe and Egeland, together with many of simultaneously respecting the infant's need for independent ex- their students, undertook a large-scale longitudinal study of ploration of the environment, the child is likely to develop an attachment with an at-risk population (disadvantaged mothers). internal working model of self as valued and self-reliant. Con- The Minnesota study, summarized in Sroufe (1983) but still versely, if the parent has frequently rejected the infant's bids for ongoing, stands as the second major longitudinal study of the comfort or for exploration, the child is likely to construct an relationship between quality of caregiving as related to security internal working model of self as unworthy or incompetent. of attachment. With the aid of working models, children predict the attach- Elsewhere across the United States, much time was spent ment figure's likely behavior and plan their own responses. testing the predictive validity of Strange Situation reunion clas- What type of model they construct is therefore of great conse- sifications. Many researchers sought to train with Mary Ains- quence. worth or her former students to learn the procedure and classifi- In Separation, Bowlby also elucidates the role of internal cation system. Hundreds of studies using the Strange Situation working models in the intergenerational transmission of at- appeared in print. It often seemed as if attachment and the tachment patterns. Individuals who grow up to become rela- Strange Situation had become synonymous. tively stable and self-reliant, he postulates, normally have par- ents who are supportive when called upon, but who also permit Attachment Theory and Mental Representation and encourage autonomy. Such parents tend not only to engage in fairly frank communication of their own working models of Separation (Bowlby, 1973) and Loss (Bowlby, 1980a), the sec- self, of their child, and of others, but also indicate to the child ond and third volumes in Bowlby's attachment trilogy, were that these working models are open to questioning and revi- slower to make an impact on the field of developmental psychol- sion. For this reason, says Bowlby, the inheritance of mental ogy than the first volume, in part because relevant empirical health and of ill health through family microculture is no less studies lagged behind. Like Attachment, these two volumes important, and may well be far more important than is genetic cover much more theoretical ground that their titles imply. inheritance (Bowlby, 1973, p. 323). Separation Loss In this book, Bowlby (1973) revises Freud's (1926/1959) In the third volume of the attachment trilogy, Bowlby (1980a) theory of signal anxiety, lays out a new approach to Freud's uses information processing theories to explain the increasing 768 INGE BRETHERTON stability of internal working models as well as their defensive tions built on actual experience and on communications from distortion. The stability of internal working models derives others) are highly contradictory. In such cases, defensive exclu- from two sources: (a) patterns of interacting grow less accessible sion may be brought to bear on episodic memories of actual to awareness as they become habitual and automatic, and (b) experience. According to Bowlby, such processes are especially dyadic patterns of relating are more resistant to change than likely in bereaved children under 3 years of age. individual patterns because of reciprocal expectancies. Finally, in Loss, Bowlby also considers a more complex re- Given that old patterns of action and thought guide selective lated problem, namely, the control of simultaneously active be- attention and information processing in new situations, some havioral systems. In Attachment and Separation, the interplay distortion of incoming information is normal and unavoidable. of behavioral systems was implicitly treated as one of competi- The adequacy of internal working models can be seriously un- tion, not higher level regulation (see also Bretherton & Ains- dermined, however, when defensive exclusion of information worth, 1974). In Loss, Bowlby posits an executive structure that from awareness interferes with their updating in response to takes the place of Freud's (1923/1961) concept of ego. The cen- developmental and environmental change. tral nervous system, Bowlby suggests, is organized in a loosely To explain the workings of defensive processes, Bowlby cites hierarchical way, with an enormous network of two-way com- evidence showing that incoming information normally under- munications among subsystems. At the top of the hierarchy, he goes many stages of processing before reaching awareness (see posits one or perhaps several principal evaluators or controllers, Dixon, 1971; Erdelyi, 1974). At every stage, some information is closely linked to long-term memory. Their task is to scan incom- retained for further processing, and the remainder discarded. ing information for relevance. If evaluated as relevant, it may be That this may happen even after information has already un- stored in short-term memory to select aspects thereof for fur- dergone very advanced levels of encoding is shown by dichotic ther processing. listening studies. In these studies, individuals who are pre- Conscious processing is likely to facilitate high-level activi- sented with different messages to each ear through headphones ties such as categorizing, retrieving, comparing, framing plans, are able to selectively attend to one of them. That the unat- and inspection of overlearned, automated action systems. In a tended message is nevertheless receiving high-level processing unified personality, Bowlby claims, the principal system or sys- becomes obvious when the person alerts to a word of personal tems can access all memories in whatever type of storage they significance (e.g., the person's name) that has been inserted into are held. However, in some cases the principal system or sys- the unattended message. tems may not be unified or capable of unimpeded intercom- Bowlby proposes that defensive exclusion of information munication with all subsystems. In this case, particular behav- from awareness derives from the same processes as selective ioral systems may not be activated when appropriate, or signals exclusion, although the motivation for the two types of exclu- from these behavioral systems may not become conscious al- sion differs. Three situations are believed to render children though fragments of defensively excluded information may at particularly prone to engaging in defensive exclusion: situations times seep through. that parents do not wish their children to know about even Some of the dissociative or repressive phenomena involved in though the children have witnessed them, situations in which the deactivation of the attachment system occur during patho- the children find the parents' behavior too unbearable to think logical mourning. For example, complete or partial disconnec- about, and situations in which children have done or thought tion of an emotional response from its cause is frequent. When about doing something of which they are deeply ashamed. the disconnection is only partial, emotional responses may be Although defensive exclusion protects the individual from directed away from the person who caused them to third per- experiencing unbearable mental pain, confusion, or conflict, it sons or to the self. Hence, a bereaved person may become mor- is bound to interfere with the accommodation of internal work- bidly preoccupied with personal reactions and sufferings rather ing models to external reality. Indeed, a number of clinical stud- than attributing his or her feelings to the loss of a close relation- ies reviewed in Separation (e.g., Cain & Fast, 1972) suggest that ship. Similarly, in disordered mourning, a bereaved person's defensive exclusion leads to a split in internal working models. disposition toward compulsive caregiving may derive from the One set of working models—accessible to awareness and dis- redirection of attachment behavior. The individual may be tak- cussion and based on what a child has been told—represents ing the role of attachment figure instead of seeking care. the parent as good and the parent's rejecting behavior as caused by the "badness" of the child. The other model, based on what the child has experienced but defensively excluded from aware- Attachment and Therapy ness, represents the hated or disappointing side of the parent. This discussion of defensive processes leads into the topic In Loss, Bowlby attempts to shed further light on these re- that preoccupied Bowlby during the last 10 years of his life: the pressive and dissociative phenomena with the aid of Tulving's uses of attachment theory in psychotherapy (Bowlby, 1988). (1972) distinction between episodic and semantic memory. Ac- Under attachment theory, a major goal in psychotherapy is the cording to Tulving, autobiographical experience is encoded in reappraisal of inadequate, outdated working models of self in episodic memory, whereas generic propositions are stored in relation to attachment figures, a particularly difficult task if semantic memory, with each memory system possibly using important others, especially parents, have forbidden their re- distinct storage mechanisms. Generic knowledge may derive view. As psychoanalysts have repeatedly noted, a person with from information supplied by others and from actual experi- inadequate, rigid working models of attachment relations is ence. Bowlby surmises that severe psychic conflict is likely to likely to inappropriately impose these models on interactions arise when the two sources of stored information (generaliza- with the therapist (a phenomenon known as transference). The APA CENTENNIAL: ORIGINS OF ATTACHMENT THEORY 769 joint task of therapist and client is to understand the origins of In addition, representational measures of attachment have the client's dysfunctional internal working models of self and been devised for use with children. A pictorial separation anxi- attachment figures. Toward this end, the therapist can be most ety test for adolescents, developed by Hansburg (1972), was helpful by serving as a reliable secure base from which an indi- adapted for younger children by Klagsbrun and Bowlby (1976), vidual can begin the arduous task of exploring and reworking and more recently revised and validated against observed at- his or her internal working models. tachment patterns by Kaplan (1984) and Slough and Greenberg (1991). Likewise, attachment-based doll-story completion tasks for preschoolers were validated against behavioral measures by New Directions Bretherton, Ridgeway, and Cassidy, (1990) and Cassidy (1988). Currently, attachment theory and research are moving for- In these tests, emotionally open responding tended to be asso- ward along several major fronts, inspired by the second and ciated with secure attachment classifications or related behav- third volumes of Bowlby's attachment trilogy, by methodologi- iors. cal advances, and by the infusion into attachment theory of Finally, several authors have created interviews that examine complementary theoretical perspectives. attachment from the parental as opposed to the filial perspec- tive (e.g, Bretherton, Biringen, Ridgeway, Maslin, & Sherman, 1989; George & Solomon, 1989). In addition, Waters and Deane Attachment and Representation (1985) developed a Q sort that can be used to assess a mother's As a result of Mary Main's Berkeley study (Main, Kaplan, & internal working models of her child's attachment to her. Cassidy, 1985) and, I think, the publication of the Society for Research in Child Development Monograph, Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research (Bretherton & Waters, 1985), Attachment Across the Life Span we are now beginning to empirically explore the psychological, internal, or representational aspects of attachment, including A related topic, attachment relationships between adults, be- the intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns that gan in the early 1970s, with studies of adult bereavement had been at the center of Bowlby's interests since his beginnings (Bowlby & Parkes, 1970; Parkes, 1972) and marital separation in psychiatry but that are most clearly elaborated in volumes 2 (Weiss, 1973,1977). More recently, interest in adult attachments and 3 of the attachment trilogy (see Bretherton, 1987, 1990, has broadened to encompass marital relationships (Weiss, 1991). 1982, 1991) and has taken a further upsurge with work by Interestingly, an additional source of inspiration for the study Shaver and Hazan (1988), who translated Ainsworth's infant of internal working models came from attempts to translate attachment patterns into adult patterns, pointing out that adults Ainsworth's infant-mother attachment patterns into corre- who describe themselves as secure, avoidant, or ambivalent sponding adult patterns. In the Adult Attachment Interview with respect to romantic relationships report differing patterns (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1984; Main & Goldwyn, in press), of parent-child relationships in their families of origin. Finally, parents were asked open-ended questions about their attach- Cicirelli (1989, 1991) has applied attachment theory to the ment relations in childhood and about the influence of these study of middle-aged siblings and their elderly parents. Much early relations on their own development. Three distinct pat- future work will be needed to delineate more fully the distinct terns of responding were identified: Autonomous-secure par- qualities of child-adult, child-child, and adult-adult attach- ents gave a clear and coherent account of early attachments ment relationships (see Ainsworth, 1989), as well as their inter- (whether these had been satisfying or not); preoccupied parents play within the family system, a task begun by Byng-Hall (1985) spoke of many conflicted childhood memories about attach- and Marvin and Stewart (1990). ment but did not draw them together into an organized, consis- tent picture; and, finally, dismissing parents were characterized by an inability to remember much about attachment relations Attachment and Developmental Psychopathology in childhood. In some of the dismissing interviews, parents' parents were idealized on a general level, but influences of early Attachment theory and research are also making a notable attachment experiences on later development were denied. Spe- impact on the emerging field of developmental psychopathol- cific memories when they did occur suggested episodes of re- ogy (Sroufe, 1988), with longitudinal attachment-based studies jection. of families with depression (Radke-Yarrow, Cummings, Kuc- Not only did the Adult Attachment Interview classifications zinsky, & Chapman, 1985), of families with maltreatment (e.g., correspond to Ainsworth's secure, ambivalent, and avoidant in- Cicchetti & Barnett, 1991; Crittenden, 1983; Schneider-Rosen, fant patterns at a conceptual level, but adult patterns were also Braunwald, Carlson, & Cicchetti, 1985), and of clinical inter- empirically correlated with infant patterns (e.g., a dismissing ventions in families with low social support (Lieberman & parent tended to have an avoidant infant; Main & Goldwyn, in Pawl, 1988; Spieker & Booth, 1988) and with behavior-problem press). These findings have since been validated for prenatally children (Greenberg & Speltz, 1988). Much of this work is repre- administered interviews by Fonagy, Steele, and Steele (1991) sented in a volume on clinical implications of attachment and by Ward et al. (1990). Consonant findings were also ob- (Belsky & Nezworski, 1988). These topics hark back to tained in a study of young adults in which Adult Attachment Bowlby's seminal ideas from the 1930s, but they have been Interview classifications were correlated with peer reports (Ko- greatly enriched by Mary Ainsworth's notions on the origins of bak&Sceery,1988). individual differences of attachment patterns. 770 INGE BRETHERTON

The Ecology of Attachment other cultures have sparked a lively debate on their universal Although we have made progress in examining mother-child versus culture-specific meaning. In a North-German study, attachment, much work needs to be done with respect to study- avoidant classifications were overrepresented (Grossmann, ing attachment in the microsystem of the family relationships Grossmann, Spangler, Suess, & Unzner, 1985), whereas ambi- (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Despite studies by Belsky, Gilstrap, valent classifications were more frequent than expected in and Rovine (1984), Lamb (1978), and Parke and Tinsley (1987) Israeli kibbutzim (Sagi et al., 1985) and in Japan (Miyake, that show fathers to be competent, if sometimes less than fully Chen, & Campos, 1985). participant attachment figures, we still have much to learn re- Initially, these findings were interpreted in purely cultural garding father attachment. Another important topic, sibling terms. Thus, Grossmann et al. (1985) proposed that the high attachment, has been tackled by a few researchers (e.g., Stewart incidence of avoidant infants in Germany should not be attrib- & Marvin, 1984; Teti & Ablard, 1989), but triadic studies of uted to parental rejection, but rather to a greater parental push attachment relationships (modeled on Dunn, 1988) are sorely toward infants' independence. Similarly, the high frequency of lacking. Especially crucial are attachment-theoretic studies of ambivalent classifications observed in Israeli kibbutzim and loyalty conflicts, alliances by a dyad vis-a-vis a third family Japan was attributed to underexposure to strangers (Miyake et member, and enmeshment of a child in the spousal dyad, as al., 1985; Sagi et al., 1985). Though persuasive on the surface, exemplified in a report by Fish, Belsky, and \bungblade (1991) these explanations were not based on systematic assessments of in which insecure attachment in infancy was associated with parental beliefs and culturally guided practices. inappropriate involvement in spousal decision making at 4 More recently, van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) ex- years of age. Finally, the interrelations of child temperament amined the frequency distributions of Strange Situation classifi- and developing attachment relationships with other family cations from over a thousand U.S. and cross-national studies, members remain conceptually unclear despite intensive re- pointing out that valid conclusions about cross-national differ- search efforts (Belsky & Rovine, 1987; Sroufe, 1985). ences should not be drawn from single samples. In addition, intercorrelational patterns of home and Strange Situation be- The documentation of family and social network factors as havior in North Germany (Grossmann et al., 1985) closely re- they affect attachment relations (e.g., Belsky & Isabella, 1988; sembled those in the Ainsworth's Baltimore study, at least in Belsky, Rovine, & Taylor, 1984) has been more successful. In the part undermining a purely cultural interpretation. Likewise, Pennsylvania project, attachment quality at the end of the first Sagi, Aviezer, Mayseless, Donnell, and Joels (1991) attribute the year was predictable from relative changes in levels of marital abundance of ambivalent classifications to specific night-time satisfaction after the child's birth, as well as from parental satis- caregiving arrangements in the kibbutzim they studied, rather faction with social support, not its frequency. than fewer experiences with strangers. Taken in combination, An ecological perspective also calls for an examination of these findings suggest that Strange Situation classifications, issues related to dual-worker families, especially in view of the and hence the concept of parental sensitivity, may have more continued sex-gender differentiation of parenting. Some femi- cross-cultural validity in industrialized nations than was ini- nist theorists have interpreted attachment theory as supporting tially believed, but the issue is by no means resolved. the traditional view of women as primary earegivers (Cho- dorow, 1978; Johnson, 1988). This is not strictly justified, be- Systematic work on the more fascinating topic of how differ- cause attachment theory does not specify that caregiving must ent cultures—especially non-Western cultures—fit attachment be done by mothers or be restricted to females (Marris, 1982). behaviors and relationships into their overall social organiza- Most central to healthy development, according to attachment tion has barely begun. There are, however, some tantalizing theory, is infants' need for a committed caregiving relationship hints in the ethnographic literature (see Bretherton, 1985, for a with one or a few adult figures.Althoug h the majority of attach- review). For example, the Micronesian society of Tikopia ment studies have focused on mothers because mothers tend to (Firth, 1936) deliberately fosters attachment between an infant most often fill this role, we do have evidence that infants can be and its maternal uncle by prescribing face-to-face talk with the attached to a hierarchy of figures,includin g fathers, grandpar- infant on a regular basis. This maternal uncle is destined to play ents, and siblings (Schaffer & Emerson, 1964) as well as to day- an important quasi-parental role in the life of the child. Along care providers (Howes, Rodning, Galuzzo, & Myers, 1988). somewhat different lines, Balinese mothers control their in- However, our knowledge about the range of societal options for fants' exploratory behavior by using fake fear expressions to successfully sharing the task of bringing up children is still bring the infants back into close proximity to them (Bateson & woefully inadequate. The recent spate of studies documenting Mead, 1942). In both cultures, a biological system is molded to an increased risk of insecure attachment if daycare begins in a particular society's purposes (by fostering specific relation- the first year and is extensive in duration (Belsky & Rovine, ships or controlling exploration). 1988; Belsky & Braungart, 1991) is worrisome and needs resolu- A recent study of parent-infant attachment among the Efe tion. Cross-cultural studies of attachment and nonparental care begins to provide systematic information in this area. The Efe, in countries such as Sweden or Israel may ultimately provide a seminomadic people, live in the African rain forest, subsist- more reliable answers. ing on foraging, horticulture, and hunting (Tronick, Winn, & Morelli, 1985). "Vbung Efe infants receive more care (including Cross-Cultural Studies nursing) from other adult women than from their own mother, except at night. Despite this multiple mothering system, by 6 Moving from family and other social networks to the larger months, infants begin to insist on a more focalized relationship societal matrix, studies of Strange Situation classifications in with their own mothers, although other female earegivers con- APA CENTENNIAL: ORIGINS OF ATTACHMENT THEORY 771 tinue to play a significant role. Tronick et al. attributed Efe relations should be studied in conjunction with new ap- practices to their living arrangements, with closely spaced dwell- proaches to the "dialogic" or "narrative" self, integrating the ings that offer little privacy and that make cooperation and mental health perspective of attachment theory with the per- sharing highly valued behaviors. In sum, attachment behavior spective of theorists interested in the social construction of is heavily overlain with cultural prescriptions, even in a society reality (Hermans, Kempen, & van Loon, 1992). that much more closely resembles the conditions of human These theoretical developments must go hand in hand or be evolution than our own. To better explore such cultural varia- followed by new methodological developments. Without Mary tions in attachment organization, attachment researchers need Ainsworth's work on patterns of attachment in the Strange Situ- to develop ecologically valid, theory-driven measures, tailored ation and Mary Main's Adult Attachment Interview that built to specific cultures and based on a deeper knowledge of par- on them, Bowlby's theoretical contributions to developmental ents' and children's culture-specific folk theories about family and clinical psychology would not have had their current influ- relationships and attachment. ence. I predict that, in the future, attachment theory may pro- vide the underpinnings of a more general theory of personality organization and relationship development. Such a theory Attachment and Public Policy would build on, but also go beyond, Bowlby's reworking of Cultural differences in the regulation of attachment behav- Freud's ideas on motivation, emotion, and development. iors raise important questions about the value diverse societies In formulating the basic tenets of attachment theory, place on attachment relations. In a thought-provoking chapter, Bowlby's strategy was, wherever possible, to meticulously test Marris (1991) points to the fundamental tension between the intuitive hunches against available empirical findings and con- desire to create a secure and predictable social order and the cepts from related domains, thus keeping the theory open to desire to maximize one's own opportunities at the expense of change. In his last work—a biography of Charles Darwin— others. A good society, according to Marris, would be one Bowlby may have been talking about himself when he said of which, as far as is humanly possible, minimizes disruptive Darwin: events, protects each child's experience of attachment from Since causes are never manifest, the only way of proceeding is to harm, and supports family coping. \fet, in order to control un- propose a plausible theory and then test its explanatory powers certainty, individuals and families are tempted to achieve cer- against further evidence, and in comparison with the power of tainty at the expense of others (i.e., by imposing a greater bur- rival theories. . . . Since most theories prove to be untenable, den of uncertainty on them or by providing fewer material and advancing them is a hazardous business and requirescourage , a social resources). When powerful groups in society promote courage Darwin never lacked. (Bowlby, 1991, p. 412) their own control over life circumstances by subordinating and Bowlby and Ainsworth, too, did not lack that courage. To ex- marginalizing others, they make it less possible for these plore the full future potential of attachment theory, others will groups to offer and experience security in their own families. need to exercise similar courage in refining, extending, and Valuing of attachment relations thus has public policy and moral implications for society, not just psychological implica- challenging it. tions for attachment dyads. This brings me back to one of Bowlby's early statements: "If a community values its children it References must cherish their parents" (Bowlby, 1951, p. 84). Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1963). The development of infant-mother inter- action among the Ganda. In B. M. Foss (Ed.), Determinants of infant behavior (pp. 67-104). New York: Wiley. Challenging Tasks for Attachment Theory Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1967). Infancy in Uganda: Infant care and the In the preceding section I have outlined the many new direc- growth of love. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. tions into which attachment research is branching out. It is Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1968). Object relations, dependency, and attach- difficult to predict which of these efforts will be most fruitful. ment: A theoretical review of the infant-mother relationship. Child Development, 40, 969-1025. No doubt, additions, revisions, and challenges to the theory Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1974). Citation for the G. Stanley Hall Award to will continue to arise out of future empirical studies. John Bowlby. Unpublished manuscript. In this finalsection , however, I would like to focus briefly on Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1982). Attachment: Retrospect and prospect. In some of the theoretical tasks that lie ahead. The idea that hu- C. M. Parkes & J. Stevenson-Hinde (Eds.), The place of attachment in man motivation derives from an interplay of familiarity- and human behavior (pp. 3-30). New York: Basic Books. novelty-seeking systems needs further exploration, as does the Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1983). A sketch of a career. In A. N. O'Connoll & notion that the human personality can be conceptualized as a N. E Russo (Eds.), Models of achievement: Reflections of eminent hierarchy of interlinked systems. New theoretical treatments of women in psychology (pp. 200-219). New York: Columbia University defensive processes in the construction of internal working Press. models of attachment need to be worked out in relation to Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Attachments beyond infancy. American insights from representational theories and research, and clini- Psychologist, 44, 709-716. Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bell, S. M. (1969). Some contemporary patterns cal attachment theory requires the development of an experien- in the feeding situation. In A. Ambrose (Ed.), Stimulation in early tial language akin to that used by other psychoanalytic theories infancy (pp. 133-170). London: Academic Press. of interpersonal relatedness, such as Winnicott (1965) and Sul- Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bell, S. M. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and livan (1953). Most important, in my view, the development of separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange internal working models of self and other within-attachment situation. Child Development, 41, 49-67. 772 INGE BRETHERTON

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